Doctoral Student Positionings and Learning of Research
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
13-1-2021 11:15 AM
End Date
13-1-2021 11:35 AM
Abstract
Doctoral Student Positionings and Learning of Research
Doctoral students often find themselves in compounding positions during their time learning to conduct research. Using positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990), we outline the intricate storylines (Holland & Lachicotte, 2009) that influence how graduate students navigate their desires, expectations, and responsibilities as they traverse research learning in their doctoral program. Positioning theory is used to explore when, in what ways, and under what conditions the doctoral students position themselves, each other, and professors in particular ways. Although the act of positioning can refer to the physical arrangements of people as they position themselves in spaces in relation to others, more often, positioning represents a metaphor of the relationships of people as actors (i.e., doctoral students, professors, and university personal) in their daily social structures (Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2009).
To explore positionings-in-action, we draw on our positions, experiences and records from group meetings in which doctoral students and a professor collaborated on peer-reviewing qualitative manuscripts submitted for national journals. Focusing on the rich points (Agar, 1996) that happen when individual or collective student and/or professor expectations of positionalities clash, in this study we demonstrate the intricate roles positionings and storylines create to enable and constrain opportunities for learning. Analyses of data from the peer-reviewing activities make visible how doctoral students enact positionings by drawing on and creating compounding storylines that subsequently influence their learning and becoming researchers.
References:
Agar, M. (1996). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63. doi:10.1111/jtsb.1990.20.
Holland, D., & Lachicotte, W. (2007) Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 101-135). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wagner, D., & Herbel-Eisenmann, B. (2009). Re-mythologizing mathematics through attention to classroom positioning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 72(1), 1–15
Keywords
qualitative research, positioning theory, doctoral student learning, rich points
Doctoral Student Positionings and Learning of Research
Doctoral Student Positionings and Learning of Research
Doctoral students often find themselves in compounding positions during their time learning to conduct research. Using positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990), we outline the intricate storylines (Holland & Lachicotte, 2009) that influence how graduate students navigate their desires, expectations, and responsibilities as they traverse research learning in their doctoral program. Positioning theory is used to explore when, in what ways, and under what conditions the doctoral students position themselves, each other, and professors in particular ways. Although the act of positioning can refer to the physical arrangements of people as they position themselves in spaces in relation to others, more often, positioning represents a metaphor of the relationships of people as actors (i.e., doctoral students, professors, and university personal) in their daily social structures (Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2009).
To explore positionings-in-action, we draw on our positions, experiences and records from group meetings in which doctoral students and a professor collaborated on peer-reviewing qualitative manuscripts submitted for national journals. Focusing on the rich points (Agar, 1996) that happen when individual or collective student and/or professor expectations of positionalities clash, in this study we demonstrate the intricate roles positionings and storylines create to enable and constrain opportunities for learning. Analyses of data from the peer-reviewing activities make visible how doctoral students enact positionings by drawing on and creating compounding storylines that subsequently influence their learning and becoming researchers.
References:
Agar, M. (1996). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63. doi:10.1111/jtsb.1990.20.
Holland, D., & Lachicotte, W. (2007) Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 101-135). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wagner, D., & Herbel-Eisenmann, B. (2009). Re-mythologizing mathematics through attention to classroom positioning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 72(1), 1–15